SINGAPORE, May 9 — There were 979 cases of home rental scams facilitated on online platforms, such as e-commerce and social media platforms, last year, said Minister of State for Home Affairs Sun Xueling in Parliament today.

This is a big jump from 192 such cases in 2021, she added, in reply to a parliamentary question from Pasir Ris-Punggol Member of Parliament Yeo Wan Ling.

Yeo had asked whether there was an increase in home rental scams using online platforms in the past year, and whether further safeguards will be implemented to protect real homeowners whose homes had been used in such scams.

In a follow-up question, Ms Yeo said a resident in her constituency was a homeowner whose house had been listed online in one such scam, and multiple victims had shown up at the homeowner’s door over a few months with their belongings, ready to move in.

She asked whether such homeowners would be penalised, to which Sun said they would not, unless they were involved in perpetuating the scams.

How home rental scams operate

Generally, in home rental scam cases, scammers will impersonate property agents and list home rentals on online platforms, said Ms Sun.

Victims who come across these listings would contact the scammers via the phone numbers on the listings, thinking they are applying for a legitimate rental unit.

The scammers would then pose as landlords or impersonate property agents by sending victims pictures of legitimate property agents’ business cards and pictures or videos of the home units they are supposedly renting out.

The scammers would inform the victims that they are required to place a deposit in order to secure a viewing or to rent a unit.

After the victims transfer the payments, the scammers will become uncontactable.

The police have been working with online platforms to remove suspicious accounts and advertisements, and with the Council for Estate Agencies (CEA) to include advisories on rental scams on its social media channels, Ms Sun said.

Other efforts include the e-commerce marketplace transaction safety ratings launched by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) in May last year.

This rates the safety of major e-commerce marketplaces, in terms of how much they have adopted identified safety measures, such as user verification, user authentication, and secured payments.

The public should still exercise vigilance by verifying the identity of the property agents they are dealing with, Ms Sun said.

This can be done by checking their identities against CEA’s public register and contacting the property agency before dealing with the agents.

"If a search of the advertised phone number does not lead to the property agent’s profile page, this could be an indication that the listing is a scam, even if the property agent’s name or registration number has been verified against the CEA’s public register,” Ms Sun said.

She added: "We urge the public to go to formal online platforms whose main business is in property rental, such as PropertyGuru and other marketplaces, and not to go to other online platforms such as Facebook or Carousell, whose main business is not in the property rental space.” — TODAY